"Bi ashi ashâk gu hurzukhi sna bushag, oshúshi pu ukur ombul bi gushi," she whispers softly through her magic, certain the meaning will be clear to those in the group who speak abyssal, while ensuring any cultist who overhears it will think it a message from Karsos to some unknown entity.
At Isilme's words, Hinagiku stops herself from going up the stairs. She takes another deep breath to calm herself, still feeling the pain that had just surged in her.
Invisible to the rest of the group, Valaria watches Hinagiku pause at the foot of the stairs, and decides to wait behind of her.
Inside of the temple, the enormous statue of Baphomet strains against the wall. Its empty eyes are fixed on Isilme, though she is invisible. The room trembles, and dust falls from the ceiling to the floor. This only adds to the effect of the illusory minotaur.
Anevia and Ary are up!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Quick! Something grunty is casting something!" Anevia whispers into the spell, thinking she was possibly the only one who heard it, but Ary shakes her head, whispering back, not into the spell - "That's just Isilme."
"Ugh, twiddlelips are a thing, now." Anevia mutters as she moves across to flank the staircase, invisibly.
Ary meanwhile chews on her lip, but then does what seems the most useful. If Isilme thought she had a way to stop the enemies from being effective, that left the clay golem. She sheathes Radiance and draws the Lucerne Hammer, striding forward as Faith shrinks back down to buckler-sized. When she sees the giant statue and all of the soldier-cultists surrounding it, she purses her lips. "Oh." she shifts her grip on the lucerne lammer, gauntlets creaking. "Won't be the first altar of the traitor that we've destroyed."
The Templars all stare through the semi-transparent image of the ghostly minotaur, where they see Ary.
"Ble mae Zanedra?" one of them asks.
"Dim amser, paratowch eich hun!" Two of them stand up straight. and immediately move to either side of the doorway, flanking the minotaur, weapons drawn. Inky black energy revolves around the rapier drawn by the right-hand templar.
"Where is Zanedra?"
"No time, prepare yourself!"
That right-hand templar is a Bladebound magus, a wielder of a powerful, sentient weapon known as a Blackblade.
Kule, Ehren, Xanderghul, and Isilme are up!
"Agor eich hunain, derbyn bendith Arglwydd y ddrysfa!" Isilme calls out in her Karsos-voice. Drifting up and back, Isilme lets go of her illusion, the minotaur exploding in a flash of light that washes over the cultists before following it up with her own special "blessing" for the cultists, confusion. She quietly unleashes the spell, its magic engulfing all six of the cultists at once.
"A black blade user among them on the right inside door" she whispers through the magic to the others.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Are you all right?" Ehren asks Hinagiku as he joins the others at the foot of the stairway, holding his flame blade aloft.
Turning to peer into the temple, he sees the numerous cultists and the golem shaped in Baphomet's image, as well as a familiar, ghostly minotaur. Realizing what Isilme's intentions must be, Ehren holds back and casts down his rod. The instant it strikes the ground, the wooden rod transforms into a large python.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Xanderghul can no longer see Isilme, but he knows that the Templars sit ahead and ready for the party. In an attempt to conceal his plans from the Templars, he speaks in Celestial in place of common: "سنقوم أنا وإيسيلمي بتعطيل فرسان المعبد - إذا كنت مستعدًا للقتال ، فعليك الانتقال الآن"
Then he steps a few steps forward so that he can see the statue and the Templars. He calls out words of power, but the nature of the words is fuzzy and hidden from mortal hearing. Then he pushes his palms together, rotates them so that the fingers face outwards, and moves them like they are crawling legs while speaking. As he speaks, the Templars suddenly experience the sensation of being covered head to toe in spiders! The spiders leave behind webs and entangle their victims, and their teeny legs are especially sharp, and make their presence known all over the body.
Of course, the spiders are illusory. They exist only within the mind of each Templar, so any Templars suffering from the spell appear to be freaking out, slapping themselves all over, for no reason. حاول أن تأخذ واحدة على قيد الحياة!" he adds before beckoning to the strong members of the party to step up.
Hinagiku's gaze momentarily meets Ehren's. For a moment, the monk hesitates, not knowing what would be best to say for the group right now.
"No, there is this pain in my chest..." she says, thinking her companions be better off knowing she that she is partly compromised.
With an apologetic look, Hinagiku pulls herself from Ehren's side to go and defend Xanderghul.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Moving through the wall behind the others, the dour unicorn's suspicions are immediately confirmed. Not wasting any further time hoping to be able to remain in his native form, he makes use of the magic he had learned while in heaven to change his form to that of a, tall, muscular elf whose body is blanketed in scars and welts like his own. Unfortunately for the rest of the group, that elven form doesn't include clothing, something that tended to draw complaints from everyone around him, which he found ironic given that no one ever complained when about him running around without clothes the other 99% of the time.
Outside, Külə abruptly shifts into the form of a naked elven man, causing both Tabitha and Virrk, who had been following him, to suddenly cry out and avert their eyes from his body. They both squirm and twist away so that they aren't facing him, though Kule himself only regards their discomfort with vague annoyance.
Meanwhile, mid-way through the minotaur's 'ritual', two of the templars start to scream and dance in place, slapping at the armor all over their bodies. "Ahhh! Ahhh! Maen nhw ar fy rhan i!"
"Am beth ydych chi'n siarad, Wil? Nid oes unrhyw beth yno!" cries out one cultist to another.
"Snap out of it, Wil? There is nothing there!"
"Nid oes dim o hyn yn real, rydym yn cael ein twyllo!" cries out the Bladebound from underneath her helmet. Their helmets serve to distort their voices somewhat, but not enough to conceal her gender. "Mae rhywun eisiau ein drysu ni! Para-.. Para..." she drifts off, vaguely, losing her place as Isilme's magic takes hold.
"None of this is real, we are being deceived! Someone wants to confuse us! Get-.. Get..."
"Shit. Do we have a plan for the two-story golem behind them?" whispers Valaria into message as the cultists erupt into chaos above. "It looks like he's trying to come free." She was still invisible.
Now speaking more boldly, Valaria launches into an oration, knowing that the magic of her words would be carried only to her allies able to hear it. She begins to tell the story of an enormous statue, possessed by the spirit of a woman gone mad with grief. It seemed that nothing could stop her rampage as she struggled step after step towards the homes of those she deemed responsible for her son's death...
At the same time, inside of the temple, Isilme floats visibly above the others. Two cultists square off into a furious fight, glaives whirling as they try to best the other. Another cultist screams in horror as, in their mind, they are slowly captured and devoured by a horde of spiders. But one unique cultist manages to shake free of the magic, stepping forwards to confront Hinagiku in the doorway of their temple. The sudden fury of their attack, bolstered by the unholy will of their demonic patron, catches Hinagiku off-guard. She raises her arms to defend herself, but the Templar cleaves their glaive downwards, leaving deep wounds across each forearm.
Anevia and Ary are up!
"We break like tiny sparrow egg." Anevia replies quietly through the message spell, leaning to the side to see up the stairs. "Ugh, you're all in the way." she whispers as she draws an adamantine arrow from her quiver and bumps into Valaria. Super in the way, apparently, and thus Anevia chooses not to overextend. And invisible even to her sneaky eyes! She launches her attack - she had no reason to know it could see through invisibility - taking her time to line up the shot... ultimately her downfall.
"I'm gonna need a bigger hammer for that." Ary mutters, before pushing forwards, bringing the lucerne hammer high overhead and crashing down towards the statue... the weapon taking on a brilliant sheen just before crashing into her foe - but would it be deflected?
Invisible, Anevia sneakily gets into position. She reaches for one of her new arrows... gah! Sana had been in her quiver! Instead of grabbing her arrows, she grabs hold of her silk rope and throws it onto the ground, where it abruptly appears for all to see. She would have to give that girl a talking to...
Meanwhile Ary strides boldly into the middle of the room of cultists. She raises her shield arm once to deflect the one cultist who tries to strike her as she passes - a mere buckler was enough to handle a glancing blow. Standing at the bottom of the platform, she swings once at the statue as it lurches forwards over her head... only for the hammer to go through the statue entirely! Something deep-throated bellows out in pain and shock. While Ary hesitates for a split second, registering what happened, one of the cultists tries to maneuver behind her to strike! But the templar finds themselves distracted by the sensation of spiders crawling around in their armor, and starts to yelp and dance in place instead!
Kule, Ehren, Xanderghul, Isilme, Hinagiku, and Valaria are up!
After being issued a command whispered in Druidic, the python flicks its tongue out and promptly slithers in the direction of the cave entrance, where Ehren could retrieve it later. Looking up at the temple, he ascends the stairway after Ary, eager to join the battle. He comes to a stop at Hinagiku's side and takes notice of her fresh wound. Frowning more deeply, Ehren looks around, taking in the scene of chaos Isilme and Xanderghul caused. The statue is a major threat, obviously, but they need to get the weaklings out of the way first. He regards the closest Templar and considers lashing out at him with his blade, but decides against it.
Instead, he calls out another incantation, its harsh inflection betraying its ill intent - by the time he reaches its end, flames are already curling out of his parted lips. Eyeing the cultists in the chamber, the druid opens his mouth, allowing the fire to come pouring out in the shape of a great viper. The serpentine apparition lazily coils upward through the air, before abruptly lunging at one of the cultists with its fanged maw. As the flames attempt to swallow up the first Templar in line, the snake continues to zip through the air as though it has a mind of its own, immolating its master's enemies one by one.
With the cultists confused, Isilme turns her focus back to the Golem. In fact, even if she had still been interested in focusing on the cultists, Ary's charge into the room to attack the golem changed things completely. As did the fact that her attack passed through it and instead connected with something that howled. Concerned there might be illusion at work, she takes a moment to focus on the statue of Baphomet, attempting to see through any illusion present.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hinagiku’s now supernatural senses allow her to feel the unholy infused blade come for her. So strong does it displace the ley in its path that the monk manages to grab the wave of world energy with her hands and slow the blow.
She then retaliates with her own attack, this one imbued with holy power from her deity. Pushing the glaive away with her wounded hand, Hinagiku moves ahead toward her foe and in a position to defend Ehren. Her step forward is instantly followed by a quick openpalm uppercut, followed by two quick kicks to the cultists knees.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
"Uh, guys. I think I may have just hit Baphomet in the face. Or... something else." Ary says, surprised when the lucerne hammer cleaves straight through the creature, leaving no marks. It was a shame she hadn't been using Faith...
Xanderghul's boots allow him, once again, to slip past the Templars without being targeted with retributive strikes, his form blurring. Then he wheels around and reaches in his spell component bag. His hand comes out with a vial of multicolored sand, which he opens and flings forward. As it leaves his hand the sand becomes a bright flash of rainbow-colored light. The light envelops two of the Templars and threatens to overwhelm their senses.
Tabitha and Virrk follow Kule as he walks closer to the temple entrance, though they are both clearly embarrassed by his nakedness. Tabitha hides out behind the wall, glancing back behind of her at the smaller statue of Baphomet with curiosity. She wonders what kind of magical powers caused the giant statue to animate, and whether her teacher was also able to evoke similar such powers.
Meanwhile, inside the temple, Ehren's fiery snake lunges through nearly all of the cultists in turn. Only one of them sees it coming and is able to duck in time. The rest cry out as they are caught aflame, one of the templars in the back falling to their knees, charred-scented smoke billowing out from the airholes in their helmet. The cultist they were fighting seems to be jarred out of their confusion for a moment, striding out into the room in a blind daze, looking for the spellcaster responsible.
Xanderghul passes by in a blur as the flames vanish, throwing a handful of multicolored sand into two of the cultists' eyes as he does. They cry out and rub furiously at their eyes, even as it leaves them vulnerable to do so.
You don't think that the statue is an illusion, though your powers of perception have been compromised due to the hectic battle below you...
While Isilme studies the statue closely, Hinagiku shows no mercy to the antipaladins of Baphomet. With a quick series of violent strikes, she puts down the stunned cultist before her. Behind of her, Valaria abruptly appears from nowhere on the stairs, throwing her starknife past everyone else and at the cultist in the back. She knew her starknife wouldn't be much use against a massive statue, so she felt she was best put to use taking down the cultists instead.
The injury jolts the cultist out of their blind spider-induced panic and they trudge across the room, ready to drive their glaive into Valaria's neck. But they stop and shrink as Ehren's massive constrictor rises up in front of her and hisses angrily.
At the same time, the massive statue reels back from Ary's unexpected blow. It stops trying to break free from the wall, and instead rotates the haft of the stone glaive in its hand so that it is pointing downwards, then begins thrusting the tree-sized weapon down at the half-elf crusader. She finds that the golem is now supernaturally fast, striking again and again faster than she can react, leaving her bruised and bloody...
The statue clearly derives its power from the unholy power of the altar! Perhaps cutting off the altar's connection to its demonic patron can help deal with the statue! If powerful enough divine magic isn't available, maybe the stone altar itself could be physically destroyed? (Enough damage vs the stone altar or a DC 25 STR check (as a move action) and a weapon that can be used to smash!)
Isilme, Anevia, and Ary are up!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Watching the golem tear into Ary, everything clicks for Isilme, her realization reinforced by Ary half-joking that she'd hit Baphomet in the face. It wasn't that the golem was an illusion, but instead that Ary's strike had cut through to the evil spirit within. In the context of where they were, it was very likely that the altar empowered the golem with a portion of power from one of Baphomet's servants, or perhaps even himself. Less of a possession and more like a glove that the demon could reach into and manipulate. The altar then was the portal which allowed that connection.
The logical thing that followed then was to sunder the altar's connection to Baphomet. Thankfully, she had just the spell for that, though she lacked the components to empower it to do so at the moment. There was, however, a way to get what she needed. Isilme generally frowned on blood magic, magic focused on the expenditure of life force to power magical spells. The ability to convert life force directly into material components for spells was but one example of the power of blood magic. With enough blood, one could literally produce the diamonds necessary to cast a spell as costly and powerful as wish, at a terrible price, of course. What she needed now, however, was significantly less than that, and a price she would gladly pay herself.
In the air before Isilme, she traces the divine rune 'त्याग'. Its glow fills the corner of the room as she draws Cygnus with her other hand. Then in one smooth motion, she draws the blade across her hand, staining the golden metal crimson with her own blood, and causing her to appear suddenly as her invisibility fades. She whips the blade toward the altar, unleashing a spray of droplets and raises her bleeding hand towards the ceiling, palm open.
Calling out in her melodic celestial, her plea rings throughout the room: "أأغنية الأجواء ، إرادتك تتردّد في جميع أنحاء السماء ، وتملأها بالنجوم التي لا تعد ولا تحصى والتي يعيق نورها الظلام الأبدي. في وقت الحاجة هذا ألتمس منك! امنحني القوة لإبعاد هذا الظلام أمامنا الآن في هذا المكان الملوث!"
The rune before her flares brightly and she winces as the magic of her spell draws upon her lifeforce to empower it. In a flash, the crimson droplets turn into a spray of silver, gleaming like the stars in the night sky.
Isilme calls out to the Song of the Spheres, whose magic fills the room. The statue, which was still stabbing at Ary madly, slows its strikes gradually before slumping over, dead and inert. A strange, dark green fog flows out from inside of it, forming a thick haze in the center of the pedestal. The fog continues to get thicker, and thicker, almost like its forming a hulking shape...
That's a glabrezu, it's just incorporeal right now. It is coalescing into a physical one.
Invidiaks are the only demon known to always be incorporeal. But all demons, even lowly dretches are capable as manifesting as incorporeal entities upon being invoked into the material plane. Like shadow demons, they can possess mortal hosts, allowing them to masquerade amongst humans unseen.
Just another less-known reason why it is a bad idea to summon demons! However, demons generally view their incorporeal forms as vulnerable. So they generally only attempt to manifest as incorporeal if they think they are being summoned by creatures much weaker than they are. (There's a reason most of the well-known cases in the Inner Sea are associated with Mage's Colleges and wayward students.)
Key facts about incorporeal demons:
-> While incorporeal cannot move or take any actions other than to attempt to take control of a host within 20'
-> They are closer to gases than shadows. One can simply hold ones breath and close ones mouth to avoid them entering the body. (Skilled demoniacs often employ masks during summoning rituals for this reason.)
-> Once repelled from a host creature, the incorporeal demon is stunned for one round, during which time they will attempt to coalesce back into a physical form.
-> If they are repelled from a creature into a smaller space than their physical form, they cannot coalesce. Some conjurers will use this fact to transport and bind powerful demons.
As Isilme finishes her spell, there is almost instantaneous relief of the horrible, sickening pain in your chest, which is now suppressed to a much more tolerable dull throb. You suddenly feel very grateful towards Isilme, before realizing that feeling you are experiencing is not actually your own.
Anevia and Ary are up!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ary does not take the missive from Baphomet well, to say the least. In particular, her kidneys, spleen, collar bone, and various other sundry parts of her did not take the news well. She starts to nerly keel over, but then forces herself to stand up straighter, a silvery sheen coating her body. "It's an incorporeal Glabrezu." she shares with the others, "Be careful of possession. Bring it down quickly while it's stunned."
"Oh gods. Baphomet hit her in the face back." Anevia whispers into the spell. "I got you boss, get out of there."
Anevia draws out her inner light, forming a longsword of pure force energy, and allowing the strands of force to coat her bow and hands, like the gossamer threads of a caterpillar or a spider. She wastes no time taking the first shot, before grabbing a cold iron arrow and nocking it... waiting for the first foe to take a swing at Ary... just waiting to deflect the attack.
Ary meanwhile obliges Anevia, fleeing back beyond her companions, before bringing the Lucerne Hammer down in the hopes of creating an opening for them. "Three times." Ary mutters drowsily.
The Bladebound magus stands, stunned, while another of the templars screams and swats at himself, both still trapped inside another of Xanderghul's spells. Neither of them are of much service to the materializing glabrezu. Anevia's first shot cleaves through it like a blast of energy.
Kule, Ehren, Xanderghul, Hinagiku and Valaria are up!
"I can try to dismiss it, everyone try to weaken it as much as possible," Isilme sends to the rest of the group. Hopefully she could land the spell before the thing could manifest a body or possess someone.
Külə steps out from around the corner as Ary returns, clearly severely wounded. Reaching out, he places a hand on her shoulder and channels healing energy into the grievous wounds that had been dealt to her.
"Hm. I liked it better when it was in the statue," Ehren remarks dryly, with just a touch of bravado. But not enough to entirely conceal the modicum of fear he feels. The powerful glabrezu had managed to deal Ary some rather grievous wounds; and as far as he could remember, they have never quite slain one without outside aid before. This would be their first, then.
The druid brandishes his flame blade, eyeing the two nearby Templars. It has been quite some time since he has wielded a real sword in combat, but he has never forgotten the lessons he received during his formative years. The occasional times he sparred with Lann ensured that his amateur swordsmanship did not totally deteriorate. Of course, compared to swinging around a hunk of iron, wielding a weightless blade of pure energy was a different experience entirely. For one, he did not need to swing nearly as hard - there was no need. To demonstrate, Ehren executes two smooth, practiced swings, the air around his blade rippling as it streaks toward the cultist.
Relief from the pain and gratitude toward Isilme for her deed comes as a weird and almost unpleasant counterpoint to the inner sadness Hinagiku bears for killing one of the cultists. Sighing calmly to regain her focus, Hinagiku focuses on the three templars surrounding her. As one panics in response the spiders, another blindly searches for Ehren in vain, and a third is simply stunned, she strikes. Hooking the first with her foot, she drags them toward her and strikes at the back of the knee. Letting go, she moves to the second one, grabbing their hand and forcing it back in an arc before putting enough pressure to cause them to kneel. And, finally, pushing the last one out of balance.
Kule places one of his hands on Ary's shoulders, and starts channeling positive energy into her wounds. The cut across her face vanishes, as does the glaive injury to her shoulder. That's enough to make her feel a bit better. But the enormous purple bruises and fractured ribs, injuries caused from being beaten with a tree-sized stone rod over and over, do not lessen in severity in the slightest.
In front of them, Ehren quickly slashes the cultist to his right across the neck, the heat and flame reaching past the metal gorget at their throat. It falls, and in one elegant motion, he turns to the cultist to his left and rakes the flame blade across their chest.
Meanwhile, Xanderghul stands further away from the others, his back turned against a curtain. Raising two hands, he intones the arcane words and gestures in a large circle in front of him, touching points in space in the same of a pentagon. At each point a purple missile materializes, and then all 5 are sent flying across the room, bludgeoning the cultist Ehren was fighting until they fall to the ground, singed and motionless.
Hinagiku and Valaria are up!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Relief from the pain and gratitude toward Isilme for cleansing the altar comes as a weird and almost unpleasant counterpoint to the inner sadness Hinagiku bears for killing one of the cultists. Sighing calmly to regain her focus, Hinagiku directs her attention on the slowly materializing oni. As her inner ocean stills, she lets it flow through her body, lets its awesome and quiet power guide her actions. Like a wave, the monk slides forward in one crouching motion, regaining her full height when she reaches the oni’s side and striking upward at its sternum with a closed fist. And, like a wave hitting a rock and submerging it, Hinagiku climbs onto the ley displaced by the slowly materializing oni, striking with her knees to its side. And, as she finally submerges it, striking at the top of its head with her elbow.
Hinagiku strikes again, and again, and again, but she finds it difficult to harm the wispy form of the demon in front of her. Much further back, Valaria frowns, knowing that if the demon was able to fully materialize it'd be bad news for all of them. She takes a break in her story to whisper a quick prayer to Desna - she'd need just a touch more luck, this time.
Valaria lashes out twice in quick succession with her star-knives, each strike cutting through the core of the cloud entirely. Just as her second blade passes through and vanishes, reappearing in her outstretched hand, the demon fully materializes...
Isilme, Anevia, and Ary are up!
"Bring it down, now!" Ary calls out from her position of relative safety. "Don't give it a chance to hit us!"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Isilme watches the fight proceed from her perch floating up in the corner of the room, slightly fatigued from the last casting, and the pain of the laceration across her palm still in her mind. The Glabrezu her spell had ejected from the statue now posed an arguably greater threat to the group, something she hadn't anticipated. While the golem was lethal and had injured Ary severely, the demon could easily possess cultists or any of them one at a time like Eustoyriax.
Clenching her bleeding palm into a fist, she stops and focuses on the pain for a moment. Her magic had done its job, and if her Lady Starsong willed it, it could work again. Flexing her fingers a couple times to work out some of the pain, she begins to make the somatic gestures necessary for her next spell. As she does, blood continues to trickle down to the floor below her, the droplets making a abstract painting out of her movements.
"الليل اللامتناهي بين النجوم يناديك ، شيطان. إبتعد عن هذا المكان من النور وتجول في الفراغ إلى الأبد!" she calls out to the demon as she finishes the invocation and unleashes its magic upon the demon. Motes of silver and blue light fill the air around and throughout the cloud, glowing brighter with each passing moment. As more appear, they begin to coalesce towards a central point.
Then as suddenly as it started, the magic begins to falter, the motes flickering and fading. Isilme, feeling the resistance to her spell, reaches within to further empower the magic with her own divine energy. The motes flare to life again in response and continue to gather, a star of light forming in the center of the cloud, dragging the demon-cloud's form along with them, threatening to collapse it into nothingness.
Isilme reaches deep into her own mythic power, pulling from it until finally she can feel the demon's resistance begin to give. With a flash of blinding light, the demon vanishes from the Material Plane. Only the twinkling light of stardust remains where he once stood.
Anevia and Ary are up!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Uh. That certainly works. Abyss is 'down' now." Ary says, nodding from the back of her allies. She sheathes the Lucerne Hammer and draws Radiance once more, allowing Faith to grow back to full size.
Anevia, meanwhile, was jostling past her allies with whispered scuze me and pardon me's until she reaches the main room, whereupon she becomes completely quiet once more... she knew better than to hit the cultist without her allies focusing on it.
The remaining magus stands and babbles to himself unintelligibly, apparently unaware that the other cultists have all fallen to the Crusaders.
Kule, Ehren, and Xanderghul are up!
Concerned about Ary's wounds, Külə attempts again to close some of them, this time his innate magical ability to heal succeeding in overwhelming the curse.
Seeing that the fight is more or less handled, Xanderghul decides to continue heading into the rest of the complex. Speaking the arcane formula for a familiar spell, Xanderghul vanishes from everyone's sight (except for Anevia). He then leaves the last cultists, confused and disabled, to the tender care of his martial companions. He heads into the next room, looking for what he expects to be five more cultists and the strange beast that Ehren had mentioned. Counting on his invisibility and the powerful magic at his disposal, Xanderghul confidently forges ahead alone.
"Well done," Ehren says to Isilme with a nod, after realizing what she just did. Why go through the trouble of fighting a demon when you could just send it back to where it belonged?
"Let's hurry, we still need to find out who 'Zanedra' is," he suggests as he steps over one of the fallen Templars and slashes at the befuddled bladebound Templar.
Meanwhile, Ehren's python slithers further into the chamber, closely following its master. Seeing him striking at the cultist, the large snake lunges forward, snapping at him with its fanged maw and attempting to encircle him in its coils.
Külə focuses even harder on his healing. He grits his teeth and flares his nostrils, his expression more equine than human. Finally, Ary can feel the pain start to recede. Across from her, Ehren turns and starts to bring down the babbling magus. This seems to snap the masked woman back to reality, as she pulls off the coils of the archdruid's snake from her neck with her free hand.
Xanderghul passes through the curtain and enters the barracks, finding a row of four beds, each with a footlocker beside it, lining the wall. The walls are covered in carvings that depict humans being tortured by demons or horned minotaurs performing lewd and profane acts in a vast labyrinth. He leaves that room to enter the adjacent one, which is finds to be empty. It contains a large oak table, on which sits a neat stack of papers and some spare quill pens and ink. To the side squats a five-foot-tall and five-foot-wide cabinet with a solid-looking lock.
Then, the stone mural between the two stairs leading up to the altar starts to tremble. It revolves in a circle around a central column, and an enormous monstrosity crawls out from the tunnel beneath the statue amongst the others. It mostly resembles a green-scaled dragon, except it has six legs that end in hooves, and its scaled, fanged head more resembles a bull than a reptile. A glowing blue pentagram shines on its forehead. It peers around the room at the heroes, standing amongst the fallen templars, and snarls. It lunges its long neck forwards to snap at Hinagiku, who deftly steps out of the way.
Hinagiku, Valaria, and Isilme are up!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Though she had cast the spell, invoked her Lady Starsong's name and even drawn upon divine power to push past the demon's resistance, Isilme is still genuinely surprised when the spell successfully banishes the demon.
It was a feeling of power that was altogether different than her time as a raelis, when she felt nearly invincible. She was keenly aware of the frail nature of her current body, and had come to terms with it in the time since their assault on Drezen, but that 'acceptance' was an admission that she would never have the power to protect her friends alone. Here and now, however, she had banished a Glabrezu to the Abyss. This was no mere dretch or babau, but a demon that would have easily been a match for Lleuad-a'r-Ser, and might even have defeated her. She, Isilme, was able to protect her friends in a way Lleuad-a'r-Ser would never have been able to. Now she could contribute something beyond merely encouraging or bolstering her allies abilities, and even if she still depended upon them for protection, she knew she wouldn't never feel the desperation and weakness she had felt back as they had invaded the city and subsequently fought Soltengrobbe.
She is snapped out of her introspection by the arrival of the beast Ehren had seen, which wastes no time charging into the midst of their group. Given that Ary was wounded gravely and it was likely more cultists would follow the beast, Isilme opts to begin by drawing upon the Song of Spheres to tip the scales of luck in their favor. With her spell cast, she channels arcane power into Cygnus, the golden blade glowing brightly with her enchantment.
As the oni materializes fully, Hinagiku readies herself to unfurl one more flurry of blows at it. However, just as she steps forward and prepares to leap, it vanishes before her very eyes, replaced by a strange charging cow. Changing direction at the last minute, Hinagiku loses balance and less than gracefully, and only luckily, avoids the charge of the scaly bovine. Straightening herself up, and shaking off the shame with a shrug, Hinagiku calls upon the purity and peace of her inner ocean to imbue her strikes.
Luck makes place to a flowing grace. Sliding to the creatures left, Hinagiku strikes once with her elbow before gracefully ducking and slipping literally under its snout, punching it in the process. Unfurling to standing to its right, she crashes unto her foe's skull with her left elbow.
Hinagiku draws upon Irori's power to bring down the monster, though she finds the creature more resilient to her strikes than most oni she fought in the Worldwound. Valaria sends her starknife flying upwards, but finds that there are too many people in her way to get an accurate shot. She would need to get closer.
Isilme floats to the right, then invokes another prayer to Desna, blessing the heroes imperceptibly. Those with the ability to see in the dark can see that there is a line of templars marching through the tunnel that the bull creature squeezed itself out of.
Anevia, and Ary are up!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Mmmm, boss, what do?" Anevia whispers into the spell, waiting for direction from Ary.
"Hit the... whatever that thing is. Aim for the pentagram, it has to mean something." Ary says as she moves into the room, moving behind Hinagiku to keep the brunt of enemies off of herself - and support the monk. As she moves into position, golden motes flutter all throughout the room...
Anevia shrugs, invisibly, and moves into the relative safety of the corner... ready to utilize her tricksy shadow powers to escape to the safety of... not there, should the need arise. She appears just as she releases the nocked cold iron arrow, inky black tendrils crawling up the length of the arrow as it hurtles towards Lann's third cousin, twice removed. As dictated, she goes for the head.
Anevia's shot hits the cow straight in the middle of the eyes, but this unholy creature apparently doesn't need brain-matter to function. The aberrant creature is unlike anything Ary had studied about, which throws her tactics off. The creature roars and readies its counter attack, as the Bladebound takes a step around Ehren and lashes out. Rather than a glaive, the Bladebound wields a rapier that appears to be made of ominous black energy. Ehren intercepts the first swing with his flame blade, but the swordswoman's sheer weapon speed sends her next thrust whisking past the archdruid's defenses...
Kule and Ehren are up!
Unwilling to risk direct combat in his elven form, Külə moves up behind Ehren and heals some of the wounds he had just received.
The rapier's bite elicits a pained shout from Ehren, who had been taken completely off guard by the wicked blade. He retaliates with another two swings of his blade, but the overzealous attacks lack the grace of his previous swings, making them predictable. For its part, the python futilely attempts to sink its fangs into the Templar's leg.
The Bladebound shimmers with a dark and ominous aura - protection granted by her demonic patron. Ehren's flame blade does not pass through.
Isilme and Valaria are the only ones able to see down the tunnel behind the secret door, since it is completely dark. They can see a lot of motion, indicating a line of cultists trying to move through.
You can hear a woman incanting a spell... it is haste, which targets all of the cultists.
Round 6!
Xanderghul is up!
"They have a caster casting haste on the cultists in the hall," she whispers through message "If you aren't here, Xander, you need to get back here as soon as possible."
Looking at the pile of papers and the tantalizingly locked cabinet, Xanderghul sighs when Isilme calls for their help again. Apparently the group did not have things handled, which meant more enemies had appeared. Shuffling back towards the main chamber, Xanderghul focuses on the bladebound magus with another spell. Speaking words symbolizing curses, disability, and permanent damage, Xander waves a hand nonchalantly at the magus while evoking necromantic magic in an attempt to destroy the man's eyes. He would be a worthy captive if the group could take him alive.
He reappears visually as well. "There are some important documents in the other room we should ensure we collect," he says.
Focused on Ehren, the Bladebound doesn't seem to notice Xanderghul's spell. Behind of him, the enormous cow-dragon attempts to rip Hinagiku apart. First it tries to gnash at her with its teeth, then it bows down and readies itself to charge at Hinagiku, but the monk gracefully dodges out of the way of each strike. It then rears up and attempts to strike at her face with its hooves. When that doesn't work either, it snorts, and starts to slowly back away from her, eyeing her warily. It had clearly under-estimated her.
Hinagiku, Valaria, and Isilme are up!